The time is no longer for silence in the ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church, but for explicit and unequivocal support for Vladimir Putin and Cyril, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, notes the French Le Monde in an article.
According to the article, For the past two weeks, several Russian bishops have been publicly approving of a military strike on Ukraine on the orders of the Russian president.
This is a new event, because during the first five weeks of the military operation, Cyril, fully aligned with Putin, was the only one to speak formally. As early as February 24, the Patriarch had provided religious support for the invasion of Ukraine, an operation which he said had a & # 8220; metaphysical & # 8221; dimension and is executed against the & # 8220; forces of evil & # 8221; which are hostile to the unity of the Russians and the Church.
& # 8220; It seems that we are dealing with a major mobilization of the Russian diocese, which supports the rhetoric of Vladimir Putin & # 8220 ;, explains Antoine Nivière, a professor at the University of Lorraine who specializes in Russian cultural and religious history. The researcher connects this wave of attitudes with the & # 8220; general acquisition of society & # 8221; managed by the Russian authorities. Since the beginning of April, he has noted several clear positions of religious leaders, as reported by Russian websites. One of them was unexpectedly the Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov, Tikon .
A supranationalist, known for being very close to Vladimir Putin and the FSB, Russia's intelligence service, the Metropolitan of Pskov asked his diocese on April 8: & # 8220; Why was such a decision taken with such consequences by our president? (…) Based on the experience of my discussions with him, I can say that if he did not consider that there were vital reasons and immediate danger to the Russians, making this operation necessary, he would not have started it. (…) If it had not done so now, but later, Russia would have been attacked at the risk of having millions of victims (…) Let us remember the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941 and the terrible losses we suffered then. & # 8221;
According to Le Monde, Bishop Savvas , very high in the central administration of the Moscow Patriarchate, told the Russian news agency Interfax on April 7: & # 8220; There is no war party and no peace party. There is no one who would not want to live peacefully & # 8221 ;. But, he added: ΅ & # 8221; We need peace at the cost of Russia's death, the violation of our ideals and, finally, the & # 8220; peaceful & # 8221; extermination; of the Russian people? & # 8220 ;.
The Russian Orthodox Church has shed its ideological weight behind the Kremlin war. But in this way it has risked alienating not only clergy inside it with an independent spirit, but also many Ukrainians.
Patriarch Cyril this month called on the Russians to rally around the government so that the state could & # 8220; repel its enemies, external and internal & # 8221 ;, a loud message of support for the war. The church, one of the pillars of Vladimir Putin's government, gave the war an air of legitimacy among the president's supporters.
Cyril presented the conflict not as an invasion of Ukraine but as a global, historic battle for values, with Russia, the last bastion against an immoral West that allows, for example, & # 8220; gay parades & # 8221; . He said that & # 8220; the truth of God & # 8221; was on the side of Russia.
Since the outbreak of war, the Patriarch has prayed for peace in Ukraine, but has also shared a podium with the head of the Russian National Guard, a domestic military police force with are fighting in Ukraine. This month, at a military cathedral outside Moscow, Cyril recited a special prayer for soldiers fighting for & # 8220; true independence & # 8221; of Russia.
Anger in Ukraine over Cyril's stance
In Ukraine, everything that is happening has angered many. Prior to the outbreak of the war, thousands of parishes in Ukraine remained under the control of Moscow and Cyril, despite the historic 2018 split that established an independent Kiev-led church with its own religious leadership for the first time.
And yet the church in Moscow has remained silent about the fate of its parishes in Ukraine, even though dozens of churches have been set on fire and destroyed, and priests have been forced to live in shelters.
& # 8220; For Ukrainian priests and Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, Patriarch Cyril betrayed them & # 8220 ;, said Sergei Chapnin, a senior fellow in Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham University in the United States. & # 8220; He did not say a word of support or empathy to them. From their point of view, they simply do not exist for Patriarch Cyril & # 8221 ;, Chapnin added.
Nearly 12,000 parishes in Ukraine belonged to Moscow and Cyril before the war, according to Chapnin, representing about one-third of all parishes under Moscow control in both countries.
14% of Ukrainians identified with the church led by Moscow, according to a poll by the Razumkov Center in Ukraine. Now, many are willing to take a break. Just two weeks after the war, a poll found that more than half of all Ukrainian Orthodox believers who attended Moscow-led churches wanted their church to move away from Moscow and Cyril.
Many priests in the church have stopped mentioning Cyril's name during prayers , which means that thousands of Ukrainian parishes are now & # 8220; de facto & # 8221; Chapnin said, although their official faith in the spiritual leader will remain until the top bishop of Kiev does the same. Hundreds of Ukrainian priests and official members of the Moscow Church, demanded that Cyril be tried in a rare ecclesiastical court for & # 8220; blessing of the war against Ukraine & # 8221; , signing their names in a petition initiated by Andriy Pinchuk, a priest from a small town nearby in Dnipro in eastern Ukraine.
& # 8220; For many years, Patriarch Cyril in his public statements. . . claimed to believe that the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine are his flock, for which he is responsible & # 8221 ;, wrote Pinchuk. & # 8220; And yet today it immediately blesses the natural destruction of this community by Russian forces & # 8221 ;.
& # 8220; We declare that it is impossible to continue to be in any form of normal faith in the Patriarch of Moscow . This is the command of our Christian conscience, “he said.
Meanwhile, in Russia, many priests choose to remain silent.& # 8220; burying their heads in the sand & # 8221 ;, said Father Georgi Suhoboki, a priest who left the country before the outbreak of war after receiving a police call criticizing the local archbishop's expenses. Speaking from Poland, he said that at a recent meeting or meeting of bishops in Moscow not a word was said about the war, & # 8220; as if they did not see what was happening & # 8221 ;.
With information from Le Monde, Financial Times
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